jticarruthers

You will automatically be charged 18% on every drink and presented the option to tip more if you would like. As noted above the prepaid gratuities option covers the room and dining staff. If you buy the drink package though that includes the tips for the bar staff as well so you would then be presented with $0 receipts and the option to tip more.

There was semi-serious talk of building a terminal outside the skyway bridge here in Tampa but it was killed by the environmental lobby before it ever got close to being a serious possibility. Unfortunately I think Tampa has a limited life as a cruise port.

Indy was one of our favorites, I think Thanksgiving 3 years ago. I haven't kept up on her schedule but at the time she was sailing from the UK in the summer and had just returned from the UK to the US so she still had a lot of "british" flavor to her which made her noticeably different from her sisters. Found food and service to be solid across the board, etc. no real "highlights" to pass along but I expect you will like her ;)

I don't think its the menus so much as the quality of ingredients and the attention to preparation and serving. I usually don't have a problem finding something that sounds good, but its a crapshoot on whether what arrives at the table resembles my expectations from reading it described on the menu. This is definitely an area where I have seen change (and not the good kind) over the last 5+ years. Very rarely had issues with items being served cold or under/over cooked and when it happened there was always a "response" to make sure you were happy. On our last cruise it was the norm, we didn't see a baked potato on any night for example that could melt butter. On the couple of nights we complained not a word was said they were just replaced by more potatoes that couldn't melt butter. Steak quality was very poor and was regularly served raw or well done, in between like say anything from medium-rare to medium-well with was very hard to hit for some reason. Again sent back a couple of items from the table, and typically got the opposite end of the spectrum back but still nothing close to the "medium" that we all kept asking for (hoping for something close).

As long as Royal has a line of people willing to meet their demands, there is no reason not to keep jacking them up. The only people that get hurt are those that were loyal when the line wasn't there .... but that's not relevant now that the good times are back ;)

IT Glitch and Royal are pretty much a given .... I have been asked to book excursions for cruises I am not on, offered freebies on cruises I am not on .... as advised already, go online or call to be sure but you are probably fine :)

Matt good to see you are optimistic ;)

Not that anyone has found so far.

I was curious enough to look but RCI's website keeps crashing out on me and the price already jumped so that probably wont happen ;)

Hmm, maybe if i had ordered the boogers and worms instead of the steak i wouldnt have had the 24 hour fever and chills reaction .... pretty sure it was a mild food poisoning but cant prove it ;)

Have to say for as much as I am unhappy about AOTS, the service really was very good across the board. I don't think your bartender served me at all but I definitely felt the crew across the board were doing their best.

Done

I still use my TA's website to browse availability :)

I am struggling with whether to give RCI another chance, currently booked on Freedom for next Thanksgiving but went ahead and booked a backup option with NCL when we got back. Will give it a little cool down time before I make a decision.

Steady decline across all ships over the years has been the pattern as far as we can tell. Adventure of the Seas was the first time we felt it reached "unacceptable" level from a food quality standpoint though.

Make sure you get the model with the true to life scrapes, dings and dents ;) Being serious, hope you are able to track one down, your off by two weeks or I would have tried to pick one up for you when I was onboard.

Adventure had the new beds (we think) last week. All 3 cabins were like sleeping on a stone slab. All 3 cabins complained and the stewards laid on layers of extra comforters under the bedsheet ... seemed like they were expecting the request as they all knew what to do. With the comforters added it was bearable but not comfortable.

Tried them when we first started cruising and they were definitely hit and miss. We found the bigger problem than the actual signal was finding a clear channel. Never forget sitting up in the Viking lounge reading my book and hearing a bunch of "chatter" on the channel my wife had instructed me to listen for her on when she headed off to do her thing. You could hear one lady getting increasingly loud and angry trying to make herself heard .... turns out it was my wife ... boy was I in trouble for ignoring her :)

I know Thanksgiving day was a bad internet day, I was watching football in the sports bar and there was a constant stream of people complaining they couldn't even log on .... not a problem for me ... never tried to log on so I cant complain :)

$10 last week ... one pull , won $10, called it a night ;)

Bill, let me know if you are able to apply the 25% disct to thanksgiving next year. My understanding is that it excludes holiday sailings but since they still (one month later) haven't issued the FCC we can't check yet.

I already have freedom OTS reserved, strongly considering dumping it for Norwegian getaway. Freedom is 6 nights $2300 for 3 pax. Getaway is 7 nights $3200 but included drinks packages for 2, prepaid grats for 2 and about $100 more in obc from ta than freedom.

Definitely no work done in the 3 cabins we were in except for maybe the mattresses. Mirror frames were rusted, paintwork chipped, temperature control for the shower did not work, sink did not drain, toilet had some bad staining, sink water pressure was set on "fire hose", curtains to balcony stained, set of duvets provided for the fold out bed had ink stains, extensive rust on the metalwork of the balcony .... apart from that everything in the room was in good shape. The mattresses may have been new, all three of our cabins described them as sleeping on stone slabs which does seem to track with what i have heard about the "new" mattresses that RCI is installing. Cabin attendants indicated no "egg crate" toppers were available exact words were "no longer available" ... not sure if that meant they dont have them anymore or that they were all gone already. All 3 cabins though they brought extra duvets, piled them on the mattresses and then put the sheets on over that to give it some padding. Before i launch into full rant let me do a couple of disclaimers: 1. Cruising is a 1st world vacation and therefore being unhappy with a cruise is a 1st world problem. i get that and for people that have never cruised, may never cruise and would love to cruise a lot of the things i just listed or will list next may indeed be "petty" but you know what, when you cruise regularly and spend a lot of money regularly on cruising you earn the right to expect a solid product and to vent about it when it isnt delivered. 2. There is such a thing as a bad cruise ... Titanic comes to mind as does the infamous Carnival Poop cruise a few years back ... with that as the definition of bad cruise, i have never taken one and hope to never take one. This was not a bad cruise, we had a generally good time. However, it was disappointing in a lot of ways and has earned the status of our worst cruise ahead of our 4 night cruise on the Carnival Inspiration way back when we first started cruising. In general, we felt the ship was not ready to be accepting paying passengers, way too many ongoing items still from before and during drydock. Frankly i dont know what the hell they did accomplish in the four weeks in drydock because a lot of the items being worked on should have been simple, no brainer drydock items. I already ran down the cabin condition so i will head on to the rest of the ship. On the positive side: Flowrider was working. Kids splash park (although very small) was working (about half the time). No problems with poolside bartenders or with waitstaff in the windjammer. Not sure if it was related to staffing up for Chops and then not having a Chops or just an Adventure thing but there was a swarm of bodies in both locations constantly checking on you. in fact it was almost a problem of too many people !! One morning in Windjammer we had one staff member just hanging out at our table ... we think he was bored and didnt have any other tables to check on so he basically just stood there watching us eat and drink. As soon as a cup was empty he offered to refill it and as soon as a plate was empty he offered to take it. Got to the point of being creepy very fast. Diamond Drinks was a nice perk, didnt really try the lounge and the rest of the coupons are basically a waste but the drinks were useful and worth having as a perk. Staff in general (waiter and room attendant in particular) were top notch. They were good, attentive and cared about what they were doing, etc. Disappointing items (going for an all inclusive list but i may have to come back for some edits later): Windjammer for dinner - limited/uninspired selection on the couple of times we went up. MDR for breakfast - Did breakfast one time, every item was stone cold, even the items we ordered to replace the items that were cold ... service was good though. MDR for dinner (sort of) - Food was generally good from a flavor standpoint, except for the steak dishes. The steaks in MDR were all very poor quality and they had some serious issues cooking them to the right temperatures. Food in general was always served on the cold to warm side rather than hot. Butter rarely melted on anything at our table. Again, service was good but its hard when your not controlling the food being delivered. Turkey dinner on Thanksgiving was good, lobster night was good. MDR bar service - was not offered a beverage in MDR once in the 5 nights we ate there. Boleros bar - Experience 1: No frozen drinks available at Boleros. Son wanted a virgin daiquiri with dinner, since drinks were never offered in the MDR, Dad had to go get it ... Boleros told me they dont make frozen drinks, try the Casino bar or upstairs on the promenade. Casino bar doesn open til 9. Run up to Champagne Bar .. nope no frozen drinks there ... told me it was an RCI decision to "differentiate" the bars and that only the sports bar on the promenade could make frozen drinks ... so 20+ minutes after leaving the table to get son a drink, dad returns with frozen daiquiri in hand. Boleros bar - Experience 2 (sort of): Frozen drinks available at Boleros along with Apple Cider. My parents wanted frozen drinks to take into dinner ... I walked up just as they were ordering them and was about to say "they dont make them here" but the bartender said no problem took their cards and dissapeared. Apparently he headed up to the sports bar (or some other bar) made the drinks and then returned with them about 15 minutes later. Yay for customer service for that guy. Of course one of the two bartenders was gone for 15 minutes right before dinner so lines were now really long. Turned to me and asked what i wanted, i asked for a Heineken and a Strongbow (Diamond drink eligible items). Takes my card and dissapears again ... apparently no cider stocked at Boleros so he went to get me some. Another 15 minutes goes by and he returns to a berating from the other poor bartender but a grateful me. I rate this as a dissapointment from the standpoint of what freaking moron doesnt stock an array of drinks at the bars right by the restaurant , the bartender was awesome. Sports bar (sort of) - First loved the sports bar and didnt know AOTS had one right in the middle of the promenade (right across from the pub). However, if you are going to have a sports bar you should probably staff it, like, when sports events are on TV !! Thanksgiving Thursday i was one of about a half dozen sitting in the bar waiting for kickoff of the Lions game. No bartender, no sound but the tvs were on at least. We all tried turning on the sound, no go. We took turns walking over to the pub to buy beers to bring back to the sports bar. Finally mid 2nd quarter the bartender shows up and turns on the sound. Pub (sort of) - The pub itself was fine, the fact that the pub had no draught beers available was not. Drydock item; old draught system removed, new system not working yet .... oops. Elevators - No refurbishment, lots of creaking and banging .. several broken railings ... no day of the week signs. Pool deck - They were working on the deck throughout the cruise. Basically carving out small damaged sections and then packing it with new plastic/mix, letting it set and then sanding it down. Unfortunately it is a little unsightly ... first couple of times i thought someone had projectile vomited across the deck and carefully steered the family back to the other side of the ship. Finally found out what the deal was and just ignored it after that. Battery is dieing so i guess its time to stop here for now ... again lots of negatives listed but the cruise was generally good just the bad stuff sticks out.

Food quality was good but the menu had very little of interest to me and the "style" of dining not my preferred. We went anyway since we could order the chops favorites. Overall I gave it a C, it was long, the chops part didn't work but the food was pretty good.

None of our three cabins were refurbed. In general I would say she needs to go into drydock for a few weeks 😉 will add more detail from home tonight. Not a bad cruise but disappointing in many many ways for us.